German IPOs Suffer 2nd Setback in Week as Scan Energy Postpones

By Michael Tsang

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Scan Energy A/S postponed its $232 million initial public offering, becoming the second company to shelve a German IPO in less than a week.

The Dybvad, Denmark-based wind- and solar-power producer couldn’t find enough buyers for its 19.7 million share offer at 8 euros ($11.80) each yesterday. Investors rejected the IPO even after Scan Energy reduced the price of its initial sale from as much as 13 euros three days earlier and extended the offer period to attract more buyers.

Scan Energy is the latest setback for the European IPO market and casts doubt on whether initial sales in the region will recover in 2010. The number of IPOs in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, may triple next year as investor confidence rebounds and private-equity firms sell their companies on the stock exchange, Paris-based Societe Generale SA said this week.

“Due to the recent events in the financial markets and investor hesitation on the German IPO market the company does not at this point in time wish to pursue an IPO and a subsequent listing,” Scan Energy said in a statement.

Hochtief AG, Germany’s largest builder, shelved a 1 billion-euro offering of its unit that runs toll roads and airports on Dec. 3 that would have been the country’s largest initial share sale in two years. The Essen, Germany-based company cited the debt crisis in Dubai and “resulting disturbances in the international capital markets.”

The day after Hochtief postponed the offering, Scan Energy said it was proceeding with its sale after receiving “positive” feedback from investors.

Lehman Brothers

The European IPO market has been slower to recover than in the U.S. after New York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s collapse in September 2008 spurred a credit-market freeze. American offerings have outpaced sales in western Europe by more than four times this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Other IPOs on tap in Germany include Brenntag Holding GmbH, a chemicals distributor owned by private-equity firm BC Partners Ltd., and Flint Group, the world’s second-biggest maker of printing ink, people familiar with the plans have said.

There may be eight to 10 IPOs in Germany with a value of 3 billion euros to 6 billion euros next year after no “sizable” share sales in 2009, Armin Heuberger, head of equity capital markets at UBS AG in Germany, said yesterday in Frankfurt, as private-equity firms begin selling and buying companies.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Tsang in New York at mtsang1@bloomberg.net.